February 8 2004

Iain Dowie

Our 3-0 win over Sheffield United (Feb 7) has been yet another result turning a previously awful season round, says a stunned Jamesey

The older you get, the faster the time flashes by, take it from me. And from my own senior standpoint, it seems like only yesterday that we were ushering in a new millennium.

At the time, CPFC were struggling after a period under administration and we supporters were all wondering what would happen next.

Well, Simon Jordan happened next in the summer of 2000 and now, getting on for four years and five managers later, do we at last have the squad and the boss to take us back up the ladder?

This evening (Feb 7), after a record-breaking five away consecutive victories and some massively-improved performances, there are certainly grounds for optimism.

Looking back over this topsy-turvy season (even by Palace standards), I can hardly believe that last year (Dec 7 column) I was writing about a "whiff of relegation". And I don't think I was being any more pessimistic than the vast majority of HOL members in holding that view.

We started off the season under Steve Kember by winning our first three games - unconvincingly but nine points out of nine feels pretty good. Then came the gradual decline and some gruesomely inept performances.

Kit Symons's reign stopped the rot to some extent but he was never going to be more than a stop-gap.

Would Iain Dowie's appointment be another false dawn? He had all the right credentials and a nice bit of red-and-blue history to go with them.

We can now applaud his obvious leadership qualities, tactical acumen and common sense... the last attribute being exemplified by Dowie's decision not to leave a massive talent like Julian Gray in limbo-land and to play him despite potential heavy criticism.

I hope Simon Jordan has finally got his man (in the nicest possible way...). I have been amazed at the virulent abuse and insults hurled at the chairman over the years, not least from our own members on the boards.

We are nearly half way through this millennial first decade and let us fervently hope it will be onward and upward for a change.

Not a whiff of relegation - but the heady aroma of a play-off position?

Email Jamesey with any of your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

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